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Jordan Lake and Falls Lake birds
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Jordan Lake and Falls Lake birds
- From: "Will Cook" <cwcook@duke.edu>
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 15:49:47 -0400
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
On Saturday 9/15 I counted Farrington Point and a few nearby areas at Jordan
Lake with the help of Anssi Vähätalo (from Finland) and Mike Skakuj (an
ornithologist from Poland). Unfortunately it was a fairly slow day - the
front blew more birds out of this area than it brought in and the strong
winds kept the ones that were there quiet. Even though birds seemed scarce,
we still ended up with 59 species, including 10 species of warblers, near
average in my experience for this count. As with other parties, we saw good
numbers of Bald Eagles, 2 adults and 3 immatures. No rarities, but we did
find a llingering Yellow Warbler and a Yellow-throated Warbler (as Jeff
did), an Empidonax flycatcher (seen briefly, probably Acadian or Least), and
a couple of Caspian Terns. We explored two great areas that I'd never been
to before - Sexton and Stone Roads. Barbara Roth's description of these
areas is at http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/tbg/farr.html
On Sunday I did some exploring near Falls Lake at Brickhouse Road and the
Flat River Impoundment. Both these areas are huge, with many miles of open
trails, and have great birding potential (there's no way you could fully
cover either one in a day). It was still windy, and most birds were lying
low, but I saw some good stuff. Brickhouse Road is probably the best single
spot around here for watching hawks and it didn't disappoint, but the
highlight of the day was my first "good" migrant of the fall - an adult male
Golden-winged Warbler - sweet! Also got some nice butterfly photos - see
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/pix/butterflies.html
I added some photos I took yesterday to Norm Budnitz's writeup at
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/tbg/butner.html and added one new trail
description (map needs updating).
--
Charles W. "Will" Cook w 919-660-7423
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook cwcook@duke.edu
Biology Dept., Duke Univ., Box 90340, Durham, NC 27708